Hello from a Fort Smith native. I live up in Springdale now. I rode bikes around Fort Smith a lot growing up and agree with a lot of your commentary. The best places to ride are by far 'old town' or anything northwest of Phoenix, and now Chaffee crossing like you mentioned - although that area is at risk of becoming a chain commercial/north Dallas type suburb. The simple fact of cycling in Fort Smith is that it is NOT a priority for the local community like it is up here in NWA. There's been a constant battle trying to maintain existing trails out at Ben Geren park as commercial development takes away land that existing trails occupy. I think that for Fort Smith to really take off in cycling safety, there needs to be serious thought given to how bike traffic flows through the city and how they can go to different places interfacing with state highways like Zero, Rogers, Towson, etc. as those are main corridors for cars. Again, the old town Fort Smith is very easy to get around if you avoid Garrison, but getting further out into the suburban areas means more danger as there is only car infrastructure being built.
In June we find out about $25m in grants for a new bike network. If that gets funded, it will be a huge deal for active transportation. I am praying we get it; it could change everything for me and others who choose to, or cannot, drive a car.
Really great video. Just in the start of this month my city in central europe converted a 4 lane road in the downtown to two lanes for cars and two fully separated lanes for bikes. At first there were a lot of loud angry voices because of the temporary traffic jams after the change but after a week or two the traffic flow is comparable to what it was previously. Mainly because of the fact that 70% of cars were only passing through so to avoid traffic jams they took the highway or other high capacity roads away from the city center. Also another project i can think of now is when the city restored an old car bridge into a pedestrian and tram/streetcar (dont know which is NA and UK) bridge. When it comes to USA and road i was already aware of the problems pedestrians have but the one thing that stuck out was how long you had to wait for some of the traffic lights like at 5:30 you waited for around 50s and the footage was sped up a bit... (and the right hand turns seem so so dangerous that you can go even on red light). Here usually you wait >30s and if it is a bigger road that couldnt afford to be so interrupted you have over/underpasses. Thats all. Safe cycling
This is such a great video. I attempted to commute from the Chaffee crossing area to work in old greenwood road and almost got hit crossing zero street. Riding on phoenix was really stressful and I almost gave up the idea of commuting again. I do plan to try another route that crosses through Ben green park and through green road to get to old Greenwood’s I do think that having more cyclists/commuters could help to get more visibility.
They do have a path on Geren Rd road now, and the state does supposedly have future plans for 45. What those plans are, I don't know! Zero St. is currently the worst street in the city for anyone who doesn't drive.
Great video! My city in Wales has done a load of infrastructure work recently to add more, safer bike lanes separated from the vehicle traffic - which is definitely increasing cycling in the city. The trail away from the road looks like a really nice cycle, but frustrating I imagine if the places you're going to aren't anywhere near it! (Also right turn lanes in America scare me both as a driver - you can't go through a red light here at all, no matter which way you're going, so it just feels odd! - and as a pedestrian)
Thank you! Turning on red is a complicated topic (legal everywhere except New York City as far as I know)! Also interestingly, the US Federal Highway Administration has an article on their website about how the type of slip lane in this video (which was built to Federal standards) is not safe for pedestrians and should be avoided. So standards are being updated as new science continues to come in!
That's pretty bad. I dunno exactly where you should rank, but that ride was only doable at all because you were on the sidewalk pretty much the whole time, alone. If there were anyone else wanting to use the sidewalk, there wouldn't have been room for the both you. You're sorta benefiting from the pedestrian infrastructure being so bad nobody else thinks to use it. I did notice the one other bike that luckily you didn't overlap entirely with, but there were no people on foot, except on the dedicated path. If there were very many of people taking strolls on that sidewalk, you'd have to ride in the street, and that'd be real uncomfortable. My guess is that from the rating perspective, they assume you can't ride on that sidewalk because of laws, or because it's not really for cycling, it's for walking. But yeah, it's better than nothing, and might as well take advantage when it's empty.
You're right, I had to very regrettably rely on the sidewalk for the majority of my trip, and running into others (even other cyclists) on the it is something that does happen often. The only alternative in some cases is death by car - other areas in town cannot safely be ridden at all.
Great video! I have to agree that it doesn't seem as bad as the ranking would suggest. Especially the trails part looked really lovely to ride. Here in Hamburg, Germany the infrastructure is quite a bit better though. You have dedicated bikelanes almost everywhere, have special bike traffic lights and generally a lot more urban connections. However, this does not protect riders from crashes with cars. It feels like there is a deathly crash at least once a month somewhere in the city. Here is a video of Hamburgs infrastructure: ruclips.net/video/8d7siT9oX0Q/видео.html Although it's 8 years old it has only gotten better since then.
I'm glad you liked it! It's amazing to think that all of that cycling infrastructure exists in Germany, the home of automobilism. That video makes me really jealous! Even the bike parking is amazing - the man who says "the infrastructure is not the best" has no idea how much worse it could be :P For another comparison, I struggled to find a single bike rack on our local university campus for about 20 minutes when I went there for a volunteering event this weekend. University campuses are supposed to be one of the most bike friendly areas in American cities.
NWA wants to brag about population growth while doing everything they can to drag their feet on urbanism. You can argue that things are improving, but I think that is being too generous. They will not build public transportation, and that is all there is to it.
Totally agree! And things are even worse down here in the Fort. My goal is to teach *adjacent to* urbanism and let people come to their own conclusions about the failures of what I am calling "the Los Angeles model" that Fort Smith is currently following.
I haven't talked with him about cycling specifically, because I think he's already on board with cycling infrastructure. But I've talked with him briefly about some cycling-adjacent topics.
I've had the bird, a stinkeye, Arby's cups thrown at me, and plenty of honking. A few close brushes with death, but probably less than many cyclists. We're fortunate that most of our neighbors are polite to cyclists, it's not this friendly in other cities.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
awesome to see more NWA urban cycling content!
Hello from a Fort Smith native. I live up in Springdale now. I rode bikes around Fort Smith a lot growing up and agree with a lot of your commentary. The best places to ride are by far 'old town' or anything northwest of Phoenix, and now Chaffee crossing like you mentioned - although that area is at risk of becoming a chain commercial/north Dallas type suburb.
The simple fact of cycling in Fort Smith is that it is NOT a priority for the local community like it is up here in NWA. There's been a constant battle trying to maintain existing trails out at Ben Geren park as commercial development takes away land that existing trails occupy. I think that for Fort Smith to really take off in cycling safety, there needs to be serious thought given to how bike traffic flows through the city and how they can go to different places interfacing with state highways like Zero, Rogers, Towson, etc. as those are main corridors for cars. Again, the old town Fort Smith is very easy to get around if you avoid Garrison, but getting further out into the suburban areas means more danger as there is only car infrastructure being built.
In June we find out about $25m in grants for a new bike network. If that gets funded, it will be a huge deal for active transportation. I am praying we get it; it could change everything for me and others who choose to, or cannot, drive a car.
Would love to see my home town improve cycling infrastructure! Great video
You and me both! I'll have more updates in the coming months.
Really great video. Just in the start of this month my city in central europe converted a 4 lane road in the downtown to two lanes for cars and two fully separated lanes for bikes. At first there were a lot of loud angry voices because of the temporary traffic jams after the change but after a week or two the traffic flow is comparable to what it was previously. Mainly because of the fact that 70% of cars were only passing through so to avoid traffic jams they took the highway or other high capacity roads away from the city center. Also another project i can think of now is when the city restored an old car bridge into a pedestrian and tram/streetcar (dont know which is NA and UK) bridge.
When it comes to USA and road i was already aware of the problems pedestrians have but the one thing that stuck out was how long you had to wait for some of the traffic lights like at 5:30 you waited for around 50s and the footage was sped up a bit... (and the right hand turns seem so so dangerous that you can go even on red light). Here usually you wait >30s and if it is a bigger road that couldnt afford to be so interrupted you have over/underpasses.
Thats all. Safe cycling
Such a good video! I hope the cycling infrastructure keeps getting better!
Thank you so much! It means so much to me that you watched it and liked it.
This is such a great video. I attempted to commute from the Chaffee crossing area to work in old greenwood road and almost got hit crossing zero street. Riding on phoenix was really stressful and I almost gave up the idea of commuting again. I do plan to try another route that crosses through Ben green park and through green road to get to old Greenwood’s I do think that having more cyclists/commuters could help to get more visibility.
They do have a path on Geren Rd road now, and the state does supposedly have future plans for 45. What those plans are, I don't know! Zero St. is currently the worst street in the city for anyone who doesn't drive.
Great review, I like how you present it 👍
Thank you so much!
lovely video ❤
Thank you!
Because half the town doesn't have bike lanes, heck it doesn't have sidewalks!
Great video! My city in Wales has done a load of infrastructure work recently to add more, safer bike lanes separated from the vehicle traffic - which is definitely increasing cycling in the city. The trail away from the road looks like a really nice cycle, but frustrating I imagine if the places you're going to aren't anywhere near it! (Also right turn lanes in America scare me both as a driver - you can't go through a red light here at all, no matter which way you're going, so it just feels odd! - and as a pedestrian)
Thank you! Turning on red is a complicated topic (legal everywhere except New York City as far as I know)! Also interestingly, the US Federal Highway Administration has an article on their website about how the type of slip lane in this video (which was built to Federal standards) is not safe for pedestrians and should be avoided. So standards are being updated as new science continues to come in!
That's pretty bad. I dunno exactly where you should rank, but that ride was only doable at all because you were on the sidewalk pretty much the whole time, alone. If there were anyone else wanting to use the sidewalk, there wouldn't have been room for the both you. You're sorta benefiting from the pedestrian infrastructure being so bad nobody else thinks to use it. I did notice the one other bike that luckily you didn't overlap entirely with, but there were no people on foot, except on the dedicated path. If there were very many of people taking strolls on that sidewalk, you'd have to ride in the street, and that'd be real uncomfortable. My guess is that from the rating perspective, they assume you can't ride on that sidewalk because of laws, or because it's not really for cycling, it's for walking. But yeah, it's better than nothing, and might as well take advantage when it's empty.
You're right, I had to very regrettably rely on the sidewalk for the majority of my trip, and running into others (even other cyclists) on the it is something that does happen often. The only alternative in some cases is death by car - other areas in town cannot safely be ridden at all.
Great video! I have to agree that it doesn't seem as bad as the ranking would suggest. Especially the trails part looked really lovely to ride. Here in Hamburg, Germany the infrastructure is quite a bit better though. You have dedicated bikelanes almost everywhere, have special bike traffic lights and generally a lot more urban connections. However, this does not protect riders from crashes with cars. It feels like there is a deathly crash at least once a month somewhere in the city. Here is a video of Hamburgs infrastructure: ruclips.net/video/8d7siT9oX0Q/видео.html Although it's 8 years old it has only gotten better since then.
I'm glad you liked it! It's amazing to think that all of that cycling infrastructure exists in Germany, the home of automobilism. That video makes me really jealous! Even the bike parking is amazing - the man who says "the infrastructure is not the best" has no idea how much worse it could be :P For another comparison, I struggled to find a single bike rack on our local university campus for about 20 minutes when I went there for a volunteering event this weekend. University campuses are supposed to be one of the most bike friendly areas in American cities.
NWA wants to brag about population growth while doing everything they can to drag their feet on urbanism. You can argue that things are improving, but I think that is being too generous. They will not build public transportation, and that is all there is to it.
Totally agree! And things are even worse down here in the Fort. My goal is to teach *adjacent to* urbanism and let people come to their own conclusions about the failures of what I am calling "the Los Angeles model" that Fort Smith is currently following.
Have you talked with the Mayor?
I haven't talked with him about cycling specifically, because I think he's already on board with cycling infrastructure. But I've talked with him briefly about some cycling-adjacent topics.
Yeah, motorists giving me the bird as i ride my bike. This is one of the reason i don't bike in FS!
I've had the bird, a stinkeye, Arby's cups thrown at me, and plenty of honking. A few close brushes with death, but probably less than many cyclists. We're fortunate that most of our neighbors are polite to cyclists, it's not this friendly in other cities.